This invention relates to carriers for carrying skis on motor vehicles.
There have been a variety of carriers which have been developed for carrying skis on cars, vans or other motor vehicles. Many such carriers have been designed for mounting on the roof of a motor vehicle. The roof-mounted carriers have several obvious disadvantages. They are difficult to mount on the vehicle, and it is difficult to put skis into them, particularly when the roof of the vehicle is high.
There are also carriers which mount on the rear of the vehicle. However, rear-mounted carriers are exposed to impacts from other vehicles or to damage by inadvertently backing the vehicle into fixed objects.
Some impacts, of course, are not sufficient to damage the vehicle. But the same impact can be sufficient to damage the skis in the carrier, as well as the carrier itself. Rear-mounted carriers, nonetheless, are typically easy to mount on vehicles because installation does not require reaching up to or over the tops of vehicles. Furthermore, skis are typically easy to mount in rear-mounted carriers.